14 night plan

Hi all,

My wife and I will be visiting Japan in March 2019 for 14 nights (likely arriving on the 14th). This will be our second trip to Japan so looking to explore more and do things we didn�ft do the first time (which was mostly the usual touristy stuff).

We will arrive in Tokyo and are planning to spend a few nights in Shinjuku, try and get over the jet lag and explore some areas we didn't last time (Asakusa and maybe some less touristy areas in the Tokyo area?). 2 nights

This is when I start to get stuck with what to do next. The main two areas we want to explore are some of Tohoku and Kyoto.

For Tohoku I�fm thinking of using Sendai as a base with day trips to Yamadera and Matsushima bay. 3 nights total in Sendai (maybe more?)

The other main part of the trip will be spent in Kyoto, thinking 5 nights.

Leaving Tokyo at the end so another 2 nights

This leaves us with a minimum of 2 nights to use, would people recommend using these nights in Tokyo/Sendai/Kyoto or use them to visit another area, maybe somewhere in-between Sendai and Kyoto to break up the travel?

We both don�ft want to spend too much time travelling around and we also have our birthdays on the 17th and 21st so would be looking for something �especial�f to do on those days, although based on my plan a long train from Sendai to Kyoto is on the cards for my bday (not really an issue for me, as I�fll be happy eating an eki-ben and watching the world go by).

Also would anyone recommend doing tokyo-Kyoto-Sendai-Tokyo instead? Not sure if it's best to go north later on in the trip?

No suggested itinerary's ever include anything in the Tohoku region to it's difficult to get a good starting point so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

You could consider side trips from Tokyo, I experienced Nikko, Kamakura and Hakone to be very worthwhile.

If you start 10 days later, you can catch cherry blossom season in the Golden route (Tokyo-Kyoto). If the cherry blooms early, you will hit in Tokyo after 25th though.